No Comment on Taiwan During Pelosi Meetings With South Korea Leadership

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with political leadership in South Korea Thursday as part of her ongoing tour of Asia. Neither Pelosi’s delegation nor Korean leadership commented on current heightened tensions with communist China over the issue of Taiwan.

Pelosi met in person with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin Pyo and other senior members of the South Korean Parliament, after which she held a phone conference with President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was on vacation.

The two sides discussed the U.S.-Korea alliance, foreign policy, and other issues, but did not broach the issue of Taiwan.

The United States and South Korea have maintained a firm alliance since the Korean War in the 1950s, which was the last time U.S. forces fought communist China. Yoon took office in May with a vow to boost South Korea’s military alliance with the United States against North Korea.

The issue of China is now a touchy subject for South Korea, however, as the nations are key trading partners. South Korea has struggled to strike a balance between its relations with the United States and China as the Sino-American rivalry has deepened over the past several years.

Taiwan Resolute Against CCP Aggression

South Koreans have questioned Yoon’s failure to meet Pelosi in person, as Pelosi is touring Asia and meeting leaders from Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan.

The speaker’s stop in South Korea, however, follows her highly-publicized visit to Taiwan earlier in the week, which Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders used as a pretext to launch an aggressive and retaliatory series of economic, cyber, and military operations.

In the days since, the CCP has launched several cyber attacks against Taiwan, announced hundreds of import bans, and effectively blockaded the island with unprecedented military drills.

The most escalatory action thus far, however, was the CCP’s decision